Riot Games wins an Emmy award for Live Graphic Design

The opening ceremony for the League of Legends 2017 World Championships in China produced a rather impressive live graphic design for its audience. Specifically speaking, there was a huge dragon… Yes a dragon, a hundred feet long. So it’s unsurprising that Riot Games managed to win a Sports Emmy, which is a first for video games.

The dragon was produced thanks to tech using augmented reality, and it brought the audience to its knees with their jaws missing. In fact, it initially even made people ask if the dragon was real, as if they were suddenly transported to Westeros from Game of Thrones. Nevertheless, it definitely succeeded in setting the stage for the greatest and grandest event Riot Games hosts on a yearly basis.

League of Legends won over all other physical related sports events; in particular, the Eleague, NBA All-Star Weekend, the NBA Finals, and ESPN/ESPN2’s college basketball. Ariel Horn, Riot Games executive producer, accepted the reward and thanked his team for making it happen.

He went on to appreciate working for Riot Games and how he feels like a teenager when he is middle-aged. He hopes that sports and esports will continue to grow supportive of each other and attain new heights.

As sports and esports events strive to capture audiences, they both seek to elevate the underlying factors that allow them to grow. With more and more people attracted to these events, the advent of esports is definitely becoming less and less surprising for the general public.

Horn strongly believed that the aforementioned underlying factors for successful esport games are the same as they are in physical sports, whether they be clutches or drama. He went on to appreciate how kids are interested in esport events, feeling passionate about something thanks to their love of video games.

Riot Games believe they’re just starting, and it will be interesting how they will, if they can, top 2017 with this year’s Worlds for League of Legends.